All hail to the Roman resurrection

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A crop of cutting-edge new museums has helped the Eternal City rediscover its past. By Anthony Perrottet, for The Sunday Times

The least expected side effect of the year 2000 festivities in Rome has been a renewed Italian fascination with that pivotal moment, 2,000 years ago, when Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor, controlled the entire Mediterranean world from his self-styled Eternal City.

This enthusiasm is a strange echo of the age of Augustus itself, for it was then that Roman citizens first became indefatigable sightseers within their own city — marvelling at one new architectural wonder after another, and inspecting palace renovations, new temples and artefacts brought in from the empire. Everything from “giants’ bones” — actually dinosaur remains —